The future of sailboat racing?

[bamamick]

Or is it pretty much the present of sailboat racing at the highest levels?

Royal Denship, who builds the Borresen Dragon now, has a program called BB-share, or something like that. For a certain amount of money they will allow you to choose from among three top-of-the line European events where they will supply you with a world championship caliber boat and crew. You show up, you sail, when it's over you drive to the airport and fly home. Simple as that.

That's a very intriguing proposition, but what about all of that crew-building stuff that every expert from the beginning of time has told us we must do to win? What about 'knowing your boat'? Is this a class that's in danger of losing it's soul, or is this just a glimpse of what happens when the costs of owning and operating your own boat at the highest levels is prohibitive?

I shudder to think how much this would cost but there's no denying that the cost of competing in the Dragon class are high. A new Dragon costs around $80-90K US when rigged. Transport. Entries. Lodging. I recently had someone tell me that they spent $80K US to do an Olympic campaign in a Finn. I shudder to think of what the bill would be to sail the European majors in the Dragon. It's not a poor man's game. Of course, lest I put someone off from the class here in North America it is a much more modest business. Our fleet is made up of older fibreglass and wooden hulls and entries in North America are generally much less expensive than they are in Europe (which is so bizarre since every major Dragon event in Europe is fully sponsored). This is not an arms race in North America and hopefully it never will be.

What do you think of this 'BB-share' idea?

Mickey Lake

[Hwyl]

I think that the US is more and more following the Eropean model (actually an American model because the Laser was the first big class to do it) where you pay your money and you get the boat, the rig and the sails. None of this choosing and mixing and matching.

Back to the spirit of your thread. I can come at it from two directions
1) The club I work at is almost entirely club owned boats. The kids who race, basically have their boats provided, the coach gets them to the regatta and mentors them on the water. I don't think they realise what a great deal it is. $400 membership, $400 race class.

2) In my 20's I was part of a group of pretty good dinghy sailors, who sometimes aspired to be big boat sailors, on four or five occasions we en masse sailed on a boat that had potential but the crew were a clusterpuck. We'd usually win fairly convincingly (not much competition in those days) leaving the owner (who we'd usually let drive) wondering what happened, and the regular crew glaring at us.

There'd be all kinds of offers and incentives to reproduce it, but that would have been no fun.

The owner never got much kudos (although they often deserved it), it was always said that they'd won because of the "rent a reputation" crew.

[rbgarr]

The local yacht club had a deal arranged with J-Boats to jumpstart a J-22 class: IIRC if you bought a boat, you'd get a trailer, commissioning, decommissioning, winter storage, mooring, launch service and insurance for a very reasonable price every year that you allowed your boat to be used for weekly sailing classes (adults), trial sails by potential owners and youth racing events.

[bamamick]

am split between envy and resentment because in so many ways it's a great idea, but I just could not imagine not having these boats to baby and worry about. Then again, I don't imagine that anyone who can afford to participate in this BB-share program worries too much about their stuff. They just pay someone else to worry about it.

This is just so far outside of the realm of my experience. As I have said here recently I am going to simplify my sailing schedule and do more practicing. I have two Dragon events on the schedule and will do a couple of Finn things in 2007, and I will sail my Star a couple of times, as well. I just put in for my vacation days so that I know that I've got the Dragon events pegged. You wouldn't think that sailing in two regattas next year would be such a big thing, but it has pretty much become a matter of focus for me with the class trying to grow a little and my part in that. I just can't miss these races.

Getting the boat ready, hauling her 1000 miles one-way. Arranging for lodging and food. Upgrading sails and equipment as needed. In a way it's all a pain in the butt, but in another way it's all pretty neat and a big part of the overall experience of sailing a one-design regatta.

On another note, we too have club owned boats and have an extensive race schedule in Flying Scots. If a person wanted to do that then they could participate in top quality one-design sailing for no more expense than what I pay in dues. And they wouldn't have to pay dry storage! Many of my friends have done nothing but this kind of sailing over the years, but I never liked Flying Scots. I want there to be beauty in what I do if possible. Enough said, I suppose.

Mickey Lake

[brian.cunningham]

Are we talking one design? small boat? Large diverse fleet of handicapped boats?

For building sailors, the smaller one design (spec) classes are best.
when you get to the larger size, full-on race boats are harder and harder to justify. The nice thing about the cruiser/racers and handicapping is that it allows boat in that can be used for more than just racing. They also seemed to be more rubust boats, and I think you wind up with a safer race. Of course the race boats the do the trans-ocean races are in a league of their own, much like an Indy or Formula One car.

[bamamick]

www.bb-dragon.com!

Mickey Lake

[Wild Wassa]

"$400 membership, $400 race class." - wrote Hwyl.

$400US is $500AU. Good heavens, no wonder many say that sailing at the lower levels is not attracting participants or that sailing schools do not retain students, the retention rate nationally is only 1.5% ... If you race a Sydney 38 Class boat, Class entry is $80,000AU per year, this I can understand.

... back to club racing, the true essence of affordable racing. So $800US is a about $1,000AU. For a thousand here, you can get a full year's club membership, full on site parking for your boat for the year, free use of a hoist for maintenance as often as needed, full season entries for both summer and winter racing, midweek, Championship, and pointscore events, and your Class Membership, Membership of Yachting Australia ... and insurance for yourself and your boat, if you boat is worth up to $50,000AU, the grand should cover it.

If you race well you can win it all back in booze (I mean classy drops).

Club racing, dinghy racing, is what many of us here do (far more here race dinghies, than in the US per head of population), and 86% of Australians who own boats, own boats under 16ft.

The real problem here is lack of hot crews not a lack of hot boats ... everyone wants to be a freak'n Skipper. There are many ordinary Skippers who's wallets are much bigger than their basic boat handling skills. This I notice a lot, being crew and racing with several Skipers throught the season. In feature events, finding rides is very easy for dedicated crew.

Do what you can afford ... with this year's Championships here in Canberra, for me, leasing boats is the most practical thing to do. If I break them, I will fix them. and if I dress the boat before the event ... that is usually all that is expected.

We do not race boats here without full insurance coverage, that is one of the best rules going at our club and with the Class Associations.

Warren.

[Dan McCosh]

There are all kinds of racing. Many clubs were formed to buy a fleet, which was then sailed by all the members. I raced in college with a group that shared a fleet, rotating boats between races. This, in fact, was how all the colleges raced. There are many rental groups sharing larger boats as well. Chartering a race boat is also common. It does change the sport, but in many ways means the emphasis is on the action, not the boat.

[bamamick]

I suppose that there have always been a faction of sailing racers who have not owned their own boats. The guys sailing the Olympic games in Finns, for one (and now Lasers, boards, etc.), although I do not believe that Finns are supplied any more.

No, I just was struck by the fact that we had a time-share arrangement in the Dragon class. We are debating right now the possibility of defining a 'classics' class within the Dragons to try and convince more owners to come out and sail. Should we also look at a completely segregated 'professional' class, or are we just fooling ourselves in thinking that almost any boat at the top of an international fleet is strictly amatuer?

Mickey Lake

[Dan McCosh]

At our club, we have both club-owned Flying Scotts and owner-owned boats. The club-owned boats are supposed to be a stepping-stone to ownership. Dunno if that is working out, but we are looking at doing that for other classes as well. To me, it seems like a way to retain both fleet numbers and interest in what otherwise would be a fading class.

[brian.cunningham]

I'm suprized more people promoted the fact that sailing boats it's one of the few forms of racing that have little or no environmental impact, especially the ones w/o engines, to increase interest.

I'm still in awe when I see large sailing ships being moved by nothing more than the wind.

[Wild Wassa]

Yesterday, I though there isn't much future in this sailboat racing caper, we were out of phase with a few puffs, then we hit an unknown object just under the surface and my future in sailboat racing was reasured. It was the first race of the summer series and a sailing tragic rolled in one. It was a goodly sized fleet, lots of boats racing (50+) and we finished 5th, not too far off the pace but not the start we wanted for our first race of the season.

(My Skipper was so hungover yesterday he couldn't look into the sun. He drank all of our water while we were waiting for the start. "Don't ever sail with a sailor who doesn't drink though, they just can't be trusted" - a Matt Owen classic. Imagine how badly we might have gone if my Skipper was straight yesterday?) ... anyway back to the future of racing sailboats, if there is a future.

There was one highlight yesterday, but only one, a machine (double) tapered Vectran spinnaker sheet from Pinnell and Bax. It feels nice in the hand, very soft and lightweight. The taper is over about a metre. These F15's are 92 pounds and fifty pence just for a dinghy (Flying Fifteens are just big docile dinghies). There is little future in sailboat racing even at a basic club level here if the Skipper (I'm crew) doesn't fork-out ... for the good gear.


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Yesterday we hit something floating just under the surface (as I've mentioned), so today it is rudder repairs day. Yesterday morning I finished refairing and polishing the rudder ... as smooth as, heaps of work went into it and now it all starts again. The work that goes into keeping the little boat going is huge.

When people get into racing, I notice a few newbies (especially the bigger boat owners here), are shocked with the maintenance commitment needed and their boats soon show it. Often new Skippers will walk up to me and say, "I have some work for you," I say "You will be added to the list." They say, "but I need the work done now." I then say, "I'll show you how to do it then." They then say, "Money is no object we need the boat (often it is, "I don't care what it costs.") To which I then reply, "You are absolutely right, money is no object if you are going to race. The money isn't the object because the real object is time."

Anyway, today is rudder repairs day again and I'm taking today off work to work on the boat again. It just wont be one day off this week either, probably three days. The future of sailboat racing is in doing repairs and having the time ... and cutting and polishing bits again, which take heaps of time ... and then there is training. Don't think you can race worth didly squat, without the time. In fact, don't even bother racing if you have to make time.

(My) "The future of sailboat racing is?" ... ... being a reliable boat caddy. Of that I am totally sure.

Warren.